Mistaken Rooms
by 9r7g5h
Summary: A drunken Julia makes what might be the best mistake of her life.


**AN:** Helix Anon requested this fic, so I completed it! :D

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Helix. Sci-fy does.

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Four fucking hours, and all she got was a call.

The world swayed slightly as Julia fumbled with the lock to their apartment building, the clink of metal against metal as she kept on missing the hole only irritating her even more. Grabbing the key with both hands, she carefully guided it into the lock, a small smirk finally crossing her lips for the first time that night as she met her mark. With a quick flip of her wrist the door unlocked and she stumbled forward, a sigh of relief leaving her at the familiar sight of home.

That relief quickly fled as she remembered the asshole she shared that home with.

For weeks they had been planning this date, making reservations and pulling strings so they both had the night off, ensuring that their shifts at the campus lab were covered so nothing got in their way. Professors had been notified, classmates had been bribed, and the last few days had been a flurry of homework and stress and tears until every assignment that might show up to ruin their date was done.

It was supposed to be their one perfect night of the year, the one night they could pretend they were Liberal Arts Majors and actually had time for a social life outside of the lab. The one night they could forget about science and math and the four different diseases they were studying for their class and just live.

The night that was supposed to be what saved their already almost dead relationship from an early grave that neither of them wanted but seemed to be running to full force.

After everything they had gone through to make sure their night was free, four hours after their reservation, Alan had called her to apologize and explain that he had "gotten caught up" in a discussion with Peter about their research. A reasonable excuse for any other night, when they were surviving off of pizza and Chinese take-out and cheap wine to relax, but for tonight? After everything they, everything she had done to make this night perfect?

She was breaking up with his ass tomorrow morning, after she took care of the hangover she just knew she was going to have when she woke up. The sad side effect of the many drinks she had drunk at the bar she had stopped at on her way back home, but at least right now she felt better then she had before them.

The stairs ended up being no problem, the thousands of times she had walked them on her way to class and back proving, for once, useful for more than a poor excuse for exercise to help fend off her guilt when she wanted a donut or four from the local bakery she passed each morning. Thirty-seven steps exactly to get up to the third floor, jumping the twenty-third so it didn't make its usual death-like squeal, and keep to the left for the last five, otherwise the loose carpet might cause her some trouble. It was a pattern she could do in her sleep, and drunk was close enough.

The mindlessness of the trip let her dream, and dream she did as she walked.

She'd dump him in the morning, demand that he have his stuff packed and moved out before she got home-it was her name on the lease, she who had been paying most of the rest for the last year they'd lived together, he couldn't protest. Anything he left behind she would donate or burn, just get rid of every trace of Alan present within her apartment, and make a new start. She'd focus on herself and her experiments at the lab, pass all of her classes with flying colors, get hired for a full time position at her internship, and life would be amazing.

All she had to do, Julia reminded herself as she pushed the unlocked door open, rolling her eyes at the stupidity of the man she'd soon no longer be dating, was get rid of him.

"Alan, I'm back, you bastard."

She didn't care that she was being loud, dropping her shoes and purse onto the floor right inside the door, slamming it shut behind her and throwing the deadbolt. With her luck, the asshole would already be asleep, most likely curled up, hogging all of the blankets, dead to the world until his alarm, the only thing that could wake him up, went off in a couple of hours. Cursing under her breath as she walked towards the bedroom, shedding clothing and jewelry as she went, she stretched as the dress fell to her ankles, leaving her in the lingerie he no longer deserved.

She didn't bother with the lights in the bathroom, instead feeling around for the soap and sink she knew was there. It only took her a few moments to get clean, scrubbing her face with whatever weird smelling soap Alan had bought this time until she was sure her raccoon eyes were gone, leaving her fresh and pretty for his pounding tomorrow.

The towels were weird. Softer than the ones she was used to, with a strange smell too different from the soap to be normal. For a single moment worry picked at her mind, but it quickly disappeared- Alan was always doing something to her apartment, things she normally changed back a few days later, so perhaps this time it was new towels and laundry detergent. Or he was cheating on her. Or she was drunker than she thought.

Either way, she flung the towel back onto its bar and continued to the bedroom, sleep the more pressing issue right now.

"Asshole," Julia growled as she took in the sight on the bed, Alan curled up into a little ball on the wrong side of the bed, the sheets and comforter almost cocooned around him. "Alan, wake up and give me some of the blankets, or I'm kicking you out tonight." Walking over to the bed, she plopped onto the mattress, jostling the figure besides her. Tugging on the sheets, she 'gently' punched where she figured his arm would be, her desire for warmth and sleep and for this night to be over overriding her normal desire to at least be civil to the man. "Give me the sheets, you greedy pig."

"What the fuck?"

Julia froze as the voice that spoke, instead of being the deep growl she was used to when Alan awoke in the morning, was lighter, more feminine, and filled with panic as a hand- a hand that was definitely not Alan's-fumbled for a strange lamp that was next to the strange bed.

"Holy shit," the woman besides her gasped, her eyes wide as she took in the sight of the mostly undressed Julia. "Who the hell are you?"

"Shit," Julia swore, jerking back and falling out of the bed, her back smacking the floor hard, knocking the air from her. She didn't stop, though, despite the black spots that threatened to overcome her vision and the pain in her chest that demanded attention, instead scrambling to her feet and running from the room.

"Wait, who-"

"I'm so sorry," Julia said over her shoulder, scrabbling at the ground for her dress, pulling up the fabric as high as it would go, ignoring the groaning threads that threatened to rip if she abused them much more. "I was at a bar and the door was unlocked and I thought this was my apartment with my stupid ex-boyfriend and I thought you were him and stealing the covers again and just…" Trailing off as she tried to gather up her things, blinking furiously as the woman turned on the light. Glancing around, Julia realized that she wasn't, in fact, in her own apartment, the strange furniture in the familiar layout more than clear now that a light was on.

"I'm so sorry," Julia said again, her words slurring together as she tried to get them all out, her tongue stumbling over itself in her haste to continue apologizing to the woman who had followed her, who now seemed more amused at the situation than pissed like she had been before. "I just, I'm going to go now."

Without waiting for an answer, Julia grabbed her purse from the floor and ran, her fingers fumbling for the bolt, the door flying open before her, freeing her from the room and the woman laughing behind her as she left.

When Julia finally made it to her own apartment, where the key fit into the lock and everything, the first thing she did was turn on the light, illuminating the couch and table and bookshelves and series of knickknacks she had grown used to seeing over the last few years she had lived there. Sagging at the feeling of relief at finally being home, for a single moment Julia hoped that the last few minutes were a dream, a hazy image given to her by the strange drinks the bartender was pouring for her at the end of the night.

This relief fled when someone knocked on the door, the sounds of footsteps fleeing before she could open it giving her some sort of clue as to who it was.

She didn't have to open the door, didn't have to see what the woman who's home she had basically broken into had left, but damn it she wanted to. She wanted to see why the woman had followed her and knocked, and if she didn't she was going to regret it.

So Julia turned back around, opened the door, and started to laugh at the folded blanket set before her door. Bending down to grab it, her smile grew at the card that had been laid on top of the blanket, the name 'Sarah Jordan' and a phone number hastily written on it. Pulling both back inside, Julia spread the blanket onto the couch as she read the piece of paper, biting back her laugh so Alan would get at least one more good night's sleep before she kicked him out in the morning.

 _I've not only already seen you mostly naked, but I also have your shoes held hostage. Want to meet for lunch tomorrow? – Sarah_

Julia would, right after she finished kicking the old out of her house to make room for what might be the new.


End file.
